Our district not only gave us yesterday (Veteran’s Day) off, but gave us Monday off as well. And in a harmonic convergence of Biblical Proportions, the rest of my family did NOT have Monday off. My schedule has been so impacted for so long with teaching, tutoring, and family obligations, that when I recognized that The Universe was giving me a gift, I knew exactly what I was going to do on Monday: Nothing.

Nothing looked like this:

7:00: Drop my daughter off at school.7:30: two eggs (scrambled), hash browns (crispy), toast (sourdough), and hot coffee (decaf) at a local eaterie. (Breakfast in a diner is one of my all-time favorite activities.)8:30: Back home. Put on headphones. Listen to The Band, Eric Clapton, and Edie Brickell. Not while I was doing something else, but just sit and listen to the music because it is good music. Turn them up to 11. 9:30: Nap10:30: Read The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell (I’ll spare you the details of how I was or, perhaps, was not dressed during most of these activities. But I will say it was mythic all by itself).11:30: Hot buttered popcorn for lunch. More music.12:30: Read some more. Lie on bed. Stare at ceiling. Bliss out.1:30: Go to bakery. Buy giant cream horn. Eat in car. Spill crumbs everywhere.2:00: Pick up daughter from school. Answer her question of why I have such a goofy smile on my face.

Doing nothing is sometimes an essential respite and can mean literally doing absolutely nothing, or it can mean just letting the day happen as it happens without a plan or process. A crazy thought, I know, in our overscheduled, over-obligated world. But as a periodic treat it can be just what the doctor ordered. On Monday I took just over five hours of my life back and did nothing with it and it was, well, glorious.